June 16, 2009

Yesterday my honey was having a rough day at work so I made him banana bread that he had been requesting for some time now :)

I used the recipe for Banana Bread from The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion (p. 80). I substituted equal parts applesauce for the oil and reduced the amount of sugar to 3/4 cup. I also used buttermilk, 1/2 cup of walnuts, and baked it in two 8.5 x 4.5 loaf pans.

I didn't have buttermilk on hand, but I used a little bit of vinegar and added it to the 2% milk I had and voila! buttermilk. See the link for the how-to.

Ingredients

2 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 cup (2-3 large) very ripe mashed banana

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

2 2/3 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1 cup yogurt, buttermilk, or sour cream

1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

2. In a medium-sized bowl, beat together the eggs, sugar, and oil. Blend in the mashed banana and vanilla. Whisk together and then sift (it's important that these be thoroughly combined) the baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and flour. Add all at once to the banana mixture. Mix quickly but thoroughly, then stir in the buttermilk and walnuts, mixing until just combined.

3. Pour the batter equally into two greased and floured 8.5 x 4.5 in. loaf pans. Bake the bread for about 40 minutes or until the center of a cake tester comes out clean. If the bread begins to brown too quickly, tent it with aluminum foil after 25 minutes in the oven.

4. When the bread tests done, remove it from the oven and place on a rack for 15 minutes; after 15 minutes, remove the bread from its pan and place on the rack to finish cooling completely.